<p>I doubt our town’s experience will help anyone … but here it is anyway.</p>
<p>The only people selling their homes are taking advantage of cheaper houses someplace else … and selling their existing homes at a substantial discount. This only works if the OTHER homeowner is desperate to sell their home. There are a few of these, but not as many as you might think. I took a look at Realtor.com and almost all the homes in my town have asking prices near where they were three/four years ago. And no, they are not moving.</p>
<p>Well, MomLive, I guess “mother-daughter” homes might be back in fashion, but that label will change to be PC in today’s society.</p>
<p>What happens to seniors who do not have children or do not get along with their children and/or children’s spouses? I see huge problems down the line as to how Americans will treat their seniors.</p>
<p>I kind of envision the housing bubble as a giant game of musical chairs. When the music stopped, we all got stuck with the houses we were in. Now, your choices are 1) take a lower price than you would have once gotten or 2) stay put. I can see why a lot of people are staying put - having just sold a 2nd home we owned (we ended up getting $40,000 less than what we paid for it 3 years earlier), psychologically, it’s difficult to take less than what your house was once worth. But there are people who do get lucky either because of supply and demand in their area, having a house that is highly desirable or just being in the right place at the right time. I guess you don’t know until you try.</p>
<p>South central Pennsylvania here (about an hour north of Baltimore). We did not experience the huge run up in home prices that occurred in so many other areas of the country, but we also were spared the decline when the bubble burst. That being said, there is quite a lot of inventory on the market and homes are taking a while to sell. I don’t see things improving much until the employment numbers get better and the market has time to absorb the “shadow inventory” of foreclosed properties that continue to come into the market. I think that prices in most areas are close to bottoming out, if they haven’t done so already. I think it’s a good time to buy IF you can qualify for a mortgage loan AND you plan on remaining in the property for the long term (at least 5 years).</p>
<p>There are two houses for sale near me - both of which are currently priced around what I paid for my house. Both of them need some major updating and are smaller then my house. They have a smaller lot and neither have a garage. That being said, I think they priced them well enough that they will sell. This is a really good neighborhood location wise and we’re in a good school district. I guess we’ll see. A few months ago someone up the street tried listing their house for about 50k more then what I paid for mine and I just about fell over when I saw their asking price. It never did sell and they decided to take it off the market.</p>
<p>I would imagine it’s difficult for some people to qualify for a mortgage these days. I didn’t have any issues about 2 yrs ago when I was 25 but I did put 20% down on my house and I have a steady job.</p>
<p>gb, if you are from around where I think you are there are quite a few foreclosed properties in that area. Houses weren’t quite as over inflated as they were in other areas but they still have changed some over the past few years.</p>
<p>Very Happy, agreed! But because I intend to keep gardening forever, need access to a yard. </p>
<p>I have a too big house for one, and plan to sell at some point before too many years pass, so appreciate this discussion. In my dreams, I’d turn it into a communal house and share responsibility and expenses with like minded folks. I still have a saved article from the NYTimes a few years back about some folks in their 60s who moved into planned shared housing. Co housing appeals, aside from the never ending meetings if a big group.</p>
<p>I live in a high end house in a working class Boston suburb. I could probably sell it for what we paid for it in, '01, except we’d need to put ~50k into in to get it into marketable condition. </p>
<p>I would love to sell - we bought this house so my mother could live with us & she is no longer with us and S is now at college.</p>
<p>I love my neighborhood, it would be great if we could downsize, but most of the houses are similar in size. The small ones tend to be less appealing (infill from the 50’s or manufactured housing from the 80s). Most of our houses date from the 20s. Houses in our neighborhood went from x in 1990, to 3x by 2007, they are now at about 2x. We bought our house in 2000 and it’s still worth almost twice what we paid for it according to zillow. From what I can tell prices have stabilized, but there aren’t a lot of houses for sales. We had a few foreclosures in the neighborhood a couple of years ago which definitely brought prices down, but they seem to have gone back up from that.</p>
<p>I live in a company (i.e. college) town. We are pretty well protected from the fluctuating real estate market and, to a great extent, unemployment. What affected housing sales here was when the stock market took a dive. People’s retirement accounts weren’t worth what they had been so people were less inclined to move up to more expensive houses. Homes in the lower and middle price range continued to sell as they always had. The older neighborhoods close to campus and downtown have also remained n demand. It is generally the 5000 SF+ homes built in what used to be cornfields that have been sitting on the market.</p>
<p>Sadly, that might just be enough to be a down payment on a garage in the Bay Area. You are lucky to be able to be a homeowner. For many young people here, it’s only dream.</p>
<p>In the 90’s and post tech bust, Oregon attracted many from CA, from the Bay and SC. They sold their crackerbox house and bought McMansion homes in OR, for cash. Transplants were blamed for inflating local prices and fuel the initial housing boom. Some transplants refi’d in W’s era. </p>
<p>Boom-pssss, the rest is history.</p>
<p>revisited the WellsForeclose, house. 2006, builder’s home. I said it was being offered at 100/sq. I was wrong, realtor corrected me, it’s at $93/sq, 9 months on market. WF is trying to find a bottom. Several other upscale homes in the same neighbor are vacant or for rent. Who rents a 3000+ sq house?</p>
<p>Housing in HI is pretty outrageous and out-of-reach for many here as well. I think LA, SF, HI all have incredibly expensive homes, apartments & condos. A big problem in HI is that the salaries are low and the cost of living is high, so the mismatch makes it even harder and many here work multiple jobs to try to make ends meet, as well as living with extended family.</p>
<p>dstark, I gather you’re not using a realtor? I’m guess this, since it sounds like you’re trying to determine the listing price on your own. </p>
<p>Realtors can not only tell you what houses in the area are selling for, but WHY they are selling for those prices. Any house will sell if it’s priced right, BUT you need up-to-the-minute comps to know what that right price is. It’s hard to get that kind of info without access to the multiple listing service.</p>